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The integration of new talent in a company

The integration of new talent is critical in the question whether a candidate is going to succeed in a company or not. In smaller companies there might not be resources to invest in long term initial training and in bigger companies the process might be standardized and too impersonal.

Leaving people to themselves in a new company and a new environment, where they have a lot of things to learn and a lot of adjustments to do, might negatively influence their productivity and personal experience. If the top talent does not feel like they have been treated in a proper way and been given enough attention, they might end up leaving the company.

As a recruiter, you do your best finding top talent, whether you are recruiting in house or from an agency for a client. The top talent will always have a lot of opportunities and will ultimately choose the most attractive offer. Therefore, a well defined integration in the company might end up being the competitive advantage the company needs to achieve the top talent in the market.

There are some things you can do as a recruiter to ensure that the new employee is the right person for the company and hence enhance the probability that the person will stay in the company for a long period of time:

- Before you start to search and screen candidates make sure the hiring manager or the HR manager have given you the following information:

What does the job require, and what really needs to be done (vs. what is stated on an outdated job description)?

What skills, behaviors, and attitudes are required to achieve those requirements for success, now?

- Include culture-based questions to help determine the values and motivation of the candidate, and compare them to the values of the organization. A key question to use is: Tell me about your ideal company culture.Do this before you talk about the company’s culture.
- Include a scenario-based problem for the candidate to resolve and report on.

- Share with the candidates the organization’s talent integration process. If there is no such thing in place yet, share success stories from other employees started in the company. You especially want to share the stories describing how the company keeps and evolves high potential.

- Consider having top candidates complete a personality-based job performance indicator that measures their potential for success in different business environments and roles. (Though such an assessment should never be used as the sole criterion for selection, as part of a selection set, it can be a valuable tool to avoid hiring the wrong candidate for the job.)

After the recruiter has found the right person for the job, it is important that the company has a good talent integration process in place; further more than the basic onboarding this involves that the new employee receives a long term mentorship program with the necessary coaching and regular feedback meetings.